Category: Questions 2000-2006

QUESTION: I want to know what a good source of lycopene is, since tomatoes are forbidden on the A diet.

ANSWER: It should also be remembered that tossing a tomato into your salad is not going to give you all that much lycopene. Tomatoes have a very high water content, so not surprisingly you only find high concentrations of lycopene in tomato paste. You also find large amounts of tomato lectin in tomato paste.

Research confirms that lycopene from tomatoes is absorbed much better into the bloodstream if it is first processed.OK, now for the good news: Lycopene is found in a number of other foods in addition to tomatoes. Let’s take a look:

Food

Micrograms lycopene per 100 grams

Tomato paste, canned

8580

Guava

6500

Watermelon, raw

5400

Grapefruit, red*

4100

Papaya

3500

Tomato, raw

3100

Apricots, dried

864

Rosehip puree

780

There is some evidence that Texas Red Grapefruit has the highest lycopene content of all commercially available grapefruit. As you can see from the chart, raw tomato does not place very high.